Capital Digest

March 06, 2009|By Tribune news services

Case dismissed: A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit questioning President Barack Obama's citizenship, lambasting the case as a waste of the court's time and suggesting the plaintiff's attorney may have to compensate the president's lawyer.

Some of Obama's critics argue he is ineligible to be president because he is not a "natural-born citizen" as the Constitution requires.

"This case, if it were allowed to proceed, would deserve mention in one of those books that seek to prove that the law is foolish or that America has too many lawyers with not enough to do," U.S. District Judge James Robertson said in his written opinion.

Clean cars: The head of California's air-pollution agency urged federal regulators on Thursday to reverse a Bush-era decision that blocks the state from setting its own limits on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, told a packed Environmental Protection Agency hearing in suburban Washington that without such authority, California's other pollution problems will get worse.

Trip to Europe: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are planning to visit Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic in their first trip to Europe since the president took office, the White House said Thursday.